2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (Living Bible)

¹⁷ When someone becomes a Christian, he becomes a brand new person inside. He is not the same anymore. A new life has begun!

¹⁸ All these new things are from God who brought us back to himself through what Christ Jesus did. And God has given us the privilege of urging everyone to come into his favor and be reconciled to him. ¹⁹ For God was in Christ, restoring the world to himself, no longer counting men’s sins against them but blotting them out. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others. ²⁰ We are Christ’s ambassadors. God is using us to speak to you: we beg you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, receive the love he offers you—be reconciled to God. ²¹ For God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. Then, in exchange, he poured God’s goodness into us!

Sermon Notes: REMAIN FAITHFUL AND SERVE [#3 in sermon series COVENANT]

Will you remain faithful members of Christ’s holy church, and serve as Christ’s representatives in the world? Will you remain faithful members of Christ’s holy church?

1. REMAIN – Will you stick around? Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. [John 15:4 (NLT)]

2. FAITHFUL – Will you have integrity and be dependable? …Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf… Tychicus, a beloved brother, faithful minister, and fellow servant in the Lord…with Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you… [Colossians 1:7, 4:7, 4:9 (NKJV)]

3. MEMBERS – Will you be connected to other Christians? But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” [1 Corinthians 12:20-21 (NKJV)]

4. SERVE – Will you be a worker and not just a watcher? I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the church in Cenchrea, [Romans 16:1 (NKJV)]

5. CHRIST’S REPRESENTATIVE – Will you represent Jesus? We are Christ’s ambassadors. God is using us to speak to you: we beg you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, receive the love he offers you—be reconciled to God. [2 Corinthians 5:20 (LB)]

Thanks for being with us online this weekend, due to the coronavirus and the state of emergency in Maryland. May God help you and encourage you and keep you safe in this time of crisis.

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Many of you are familiar with a children’s book called “Horton Hatches the Egg” by Dr. Seuss. It’s one of my wife’s favorites and it tells a story of Horton the elephant. Horton gets caught in a conversation with Mayzie, a lazy bird tired of sitting on her egg. She asks HIM to sit on her egg, and part of the conversation goes like this:

“I can’t,” said the elephant.

“PL-E-E-ASE!” begged the bird.

“I won’t be gone long, sir, I give you my word.

I’ll hurry right back. Why, I’ll never be missed….”

“Very well,” said the elephant, “since you insist….

You want a vacation. Go fly off and take it.

I’ll sit on your egg and I’ll try not to break it.

I’ll stay and be faithful. I mean what I say.”

“Toodle-oo!” sang out Maysie and fluttered away.

More about Horton the faithful elephant in a few minutes…

During this season of Lent we’re focusing on how to grow in our walk with God. And we’re looking at the promises we make when we’re baptized and when we become members of Brook Hill United Methodist Church.

On this third Sunday of Lent, let’s look at one of the questions we’re asked for baptism or membership:

Will you remain faithful members of Christ’s holy church, and serve as Christ’s representatives in the world?

This one long question is really two shorter questions, and we want to look at each of them today:

1. Will you remain faithful members of Christ’s holy church?

2. Will you serve as Christ’s representative in the world?

And (partly because I’m a nerd as well as a preacher) we’re breaking these two questions apart into five questions that YOU hope I will look at, BRIEFLY!

Please read the five questions aloud with me:

1. REMAIN – Will you stick around?

2. FAITHFUL – Will you have integrity and be dependable?

3. MEMBERS – Will you be connected to other Christians?

4. SERVE – Will you be a worker and not just a watcher?

5. CHRIST’S REPRESENTATIVE – Will you represent Jesus?

The first question is: 1. REMAIN – Will you stick around?

Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. [John 15:4 (NLT)]

Jesus reminds us that if we want to become everything He’s created us for, we’ll need to abide in Him, we’ll need to live in connection with Him, we’ll need to remain in Him.

The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob wants to live in us. The God of Moses and David and Nehemiah wants dwell in our minds and hearts and lives. The God of Peter and Paul and Mary Magdalene wants to inhabit us in such a way that we become everything He created us for.

But will we stick around? Will we stay connected to the true vine?

If it weren’t for the grace of God we could quickly move on to the various spirits of this age. We could move on to intellectual pride or human ingenuity or digital preoccupation. We could move on to self-indulgence or hopelessness and despair or self-destructive behavior.

But will we stick around? Remaining in Christ means submitting to a Higher Power. Abiding in Christ means putting God first, giving priority to our time alone with Him, giving priority to feeding on the scriptures and hearing His voice.

Remaining in Christ means humbling ourselves to love and serve and encourage and bless.

I’m grateful for the saints who have stuck around, who have remained with Jesus when it meant criticism and verbal abuse or worse.

I’m thinking of 21 Coptic Christians who were beheaded by the seashore in Tripoli, Libya in 2015. A video of this event was posted on Twitter, with the following title: “a message signed with blood to the nation of the cross.”

And I’m grateful for the saints of Brook Hill who have stuck around.

The second question is: 2. FAITHFUL – Will you have integrity and be dependable?

…Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf… Tychicus, a beloved brother, faithful minister, and fellow servant in the Lord…with Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you… [Colossians 1:7, 4:7, 4:9 (NKJV)]

Here Paul mentions three of his Christian friends, and he calls each of them faithful.

We say that a husband or wife has been faithful to their marriage vows if they have been true to their word, and reserved their affections only for each other.

The promises of a faithful person are reliable and dependable. You’ll hear someone say that a person’s word is their bond. They will do everything within their power to keep a commitment they have made.

It may not be “COOL” to be faithful. But look at the long-term consequences of unfaithfulness. You’ll see broken families and damaged churches and lives full of regret.

Horton the elephant was faithful. Let me just read one page of this children’s book:

So Horton kept sitting there, day after day.

And soon it was Autumn. The leaves blew away.

And then came the winter… the snow and the sleet!

And icicles hung from his trunk and his feet.

But Horton kept sitting, and said with a sneeze,

“I’ll stay on this egg and I won’t let it freeze.

I meant what I said

And I said what I meant….

An elephant’s faithful

One hundred per cent!”

Five times in this short book Horton repeats those lines:

I meant what I said

And I said what I meant….

An elephant’s faithful

One hundred per cent!”

When the chips are down, and the going gets tough, will we be found to be faithful? Reliable? Dependable?

The third question is: 3. MEMBERS – Will you be connected to other Christians?

But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” [1 Corinthians 12:20-21 (NKJV)]

In this 12^th chapter of 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul describes those who believe in Jesus as the Body of Christ. In this metaphor, Jesus Himself is the Head. You and I are members of His body – hands and feet, toes and fingers, shoulders and knees.

God’s plan when we come to be Christians is that we will be connected to one another.

There are no living toes who have life unless they’re connected to the leg-bone, and the leg-bone is connected to the hip-bone, and so on.

You won’t see a knee sitting in a chair by the side of the road, saying, “Oh, no, that’s all right, I don’t need to be connected to an ear or an esophagus. Oh, no, that’s all right, I’m fine without arteries or veins or capillaries.”

And as Christians, we’re meant to be connected to each other as well as being connected to Jesus.

You may think that you don’t need Joe Shmo Christian, but maybe he needs you. And maybe you’ll need his prayers or his mechanical skills at some point.

The Church is not just an organization. At a more fundamental level the church is an ORGANISM, and, organically, we are meant to be connected to one another.

Last week in Guatemala I met Juan Carlos Aguilar. He is a machinist by trade, but also a bi-vocational pastor. He shepherds a church of about 50 people in San Pedro Sacatepequez.

Juan Carlos invited me and Irving my interpreter to Friday night coffee at the Redemption of Jesus House of Prayer.

He says of his church, “We need to be a family together.” He understands that we are members of a spiritual family, members who are meant to be organically connected to one another.

The fourth question is: 4. SERVE – Will you be a worker and not just a watcher?

I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the church in Cenchrea, [Romans 16:1 (NKJV)]

Paul is talking about Phoebe, who lived in the town of Cenchrea (near Corinth). We’re guessing that Phoebe was a person of some wealth and social standing. When Paul was living in Corinth he wrote a letter to the church in Rome, and Phoebe was the person who delivered the letter. She was a worker and not just a watcher.

The Methodist movement has included some pretty good workers over the years – Harriet Tubman and Nelson Mandela, and, of course, thousands of others, including many of our friends here at Brook Hill.

Not that it matters, but I’ve learned from Wikipedia that Superman (Clark Kent) was a fictional Methodist. His adoptive parents were Jonathan and Martha Kent, and Clark was raised in the Midwest in a Methodist Church.

Don’t just be a watcher, be a worker. Don’t just be a fan, be a follower. Don’t just be just an attender, be active.

The fifth and final question is: 5. CHRIST’S REPRESENTATIVE – Will you represent Jesus?

We are Christ’s ambassadors. God is using us to speak to you: we beg you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, receive the love he offers you—be reconciled to God. [2 Corinthians 5:20 (LB)]

We have the privilege of being Christ’s representatives on Planet Earth. We have the privilege of being “Jesus with skin on” for a whole host of people. People who need to see what love looks like. People who need to feel loved and accepted by someone. And that someone can be you or me.

We have the privilege of being Christ’s ambassadors, not necessarily to the government leaders in Washington, but to people in our neighborhoods, men and women in our places of employment, fellow students in our schools, and frail people in our hospitals and nursing homes.

To whom have you been Christ’s representative this past week?

All Christians have been given the ministry of reconciliation. God wants to use us to speak to others. Our task is to encourage others to be reconciled to God, to receive the love He offers, to open their lives to faith in Jesus Christ.

Last week I saw it in Guatemala. One woman, Kari Engen, a Marylander who has now been fully Guatemalan for many years. She represents Christ to hundreds of children and their families. She’s not a pastor… she’s an educator. She started a school that teaches reading and math and science, but also love and respect and responsibility. And above all, students at Mi Refugio School learn Jesus.

They learn that God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him shall NOT perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that through Jesus the world might be saved.

Kari Engen is a representative of Christ in Guatemala. Are you His representative in Frederick, Maryland?

So how will you answer these five questions?

1. Will you REMAIN, will you stick around? (YES!)

2. Will you be FAITHFUL, a dependable person? (YES!)

3. Will you be a MEMBER, connected to other Christians? (YES!)

4. Will you SERVE as a worker and not just a watcher? (YES!)

5. Will you be CHRIST’S REPRESENTATIVE in the world? (YES!)

Let it be so! And all God’s people said “AMEN!”

sermon – Faith and Our Tongue

(James 3:1-18 – NLT) June 2, 2019

Controlling the Tongue

¹ Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly.

² Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way.

³ We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. 

⁴ And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. 

⁵ In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches.

But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. 

⁶ And among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself.

⁷ People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, 

⁸ but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison. 

⁹ Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God. 

¹⁰ And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the

same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right! 

¹¹ Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water? 

¹² Does a fig tree produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs? No, and you can’t draw fresh water from a salty spring.

True Wisdom Comes from God

¹³ If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. 

¹⁴ But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. 

¹⁵ For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. 

¹⁶ For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.

¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. 

¹⁸ And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.

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PRAYER

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Good morning!

As we continue our study of James, we come to chapter 3.

      And this morning we look at the power of the tongue.

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How can we control our speech, our words,

in a way that pleases God and makes us useful to Him?

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(Point #1)

Our Words Can Build Others Up or Destroy Them.

(verses 2-12)

Think for a minute… about Adolf Hitler.

He didn’t finish secondary school.

He was rejected twice for art school.

At 20, he was a struggling artist, homeless in Vienna.

By age 29, he was a wounded veteran of World War 1.

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But he was beginning to learn

the power of words and ideas.

Here are four of his quotes:

“The great masses of the people will more easily

fall victims to a big lie than to a small one.”

“The victor will never be asked if he told the truth.”

“It is not truth that matters, but victory.”

“Success is the sole earthly judge of right and wrong.”

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Think about these statements of Hitler.

They tell us a lot about the evil man he became.

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Ultimately, we know that Hitler’s words and actions

started World War 2,

in which over 50 million people died.

Adolf Hitler illustrates for us the power of words to destroy.

———————————————————————————

Our scripture lesson says,

(5) Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. (6) The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. (NIV)

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Now let’s contrast Adolf Hitler with Winston Churchill.

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Churchill was born into wealth.

But spoke a lisp all his life.

He was sent away to boarding school at age 7.

In secondary school he was at the bottom of his class.

Twice he failed the entrance exam

to Britain’s Royal Military College.

He was accident prone, once being hit by a car in NYC

because he didn’t look both ways.

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He had many faults and failures in life,

but at age 65 he became Prime Minister of Great Britain

just as World War 2 was beginning.

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AND THEN – His words – his speeches –

galvanized a feeble nation

to rise up and resist the Nazi invasion.

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These words from one of his speeches:

“We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be.

We shall fight on the beaches,

we shall fight on the landing grounds,

we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,

we shall fight in the hills;

we shall never surrender.”

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And one other Winston Churchill quote

(since I can’t resist it):

“All the great things are simple,

and many can be expressed in a single word:

freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.”

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(PAUSE)

This / is the power of the tongue – the power of words. James says:

^3-5 “A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it! (The Message)

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Here in chapter 3

James uses the TONGUE as a metaphor

for our THOUGHTS and HEARTS and SPEECH.

The little muscle in our mouths

has no great power of its own,

but it enunciates the THOUGHTS

of our HEARTS and MINDS.

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Every now and then the LORD reminds me

of the power of silence.

Mark Twain said, “It is better to keep your mouth closed

and let people think you are a fool

than to open it and remove all doubt.”

There is a time to speak up / and a time to remain silent.

May God give us wisdom to discern the difference!

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(PAUSE)

So that is the first of this morning’s three points:

(1) Our Words Can Build Others Up or Destroy Them.

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(Point #2)

We Need Wisdom of Speech and Life! (verses 13,17)

¹³ Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom…¹⁷ But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. (NIV)

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Here in chapter 3, James warns us

of the potential evil that comes

from undisciplined words,

and he links these verses

directly with heavenly wisdom.

We need wisdom from God

if we hope to control our tongues.

Verses 13 and 17 give us

Ten Characteristics of Heavenly Wisdom,

and if we were to summarize them,

one phrase that stands out to me:

THE HUMILITY THAT COMES FROM WISDOM.

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In our minds we have the idea of a wise man or woman.

And almost invariably

a wise person will be a humble person.

And it seems to me that you will see a balance

in the lives of wise people.

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It’s a balance between THOUGHTS and ACTIONS.

A balance

between GODLINESS and COMMON SENSE.

A balance

between LOVING GOD and LOVING OTHERS.

A balance

between their VERTICAL relationship (with God)

and their HORIZONTAL relationships (with others).

———————————————————————————

Think of a wise person you know.

You will notice in them a patience,

a willingness to stop and think for a moment

(or even for a day or a week)

rather than to impulsively blurt out

the first thing that comes to mind.

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You will see in them humility,

a willingness to work together with people

who have skills or gifts which they do not possess.

You will generally see a willingness to work hard

behind the scenes,

you will see perseverance,

and the capacity to sacrifice short-term fun

for long-term profit.

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We see this wisdom from heaven

when we read the book of PROVERBS in the OT.

We see this wisdom from heaven

when we think about the NINE fruits of the Spirit

in Galatians chapter 5.

And we see this wisdom from heaven

in the lives of godly men and women,

whether we are looking at Mother Teresa

or Henri Nouwen or your neighbor next door.

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There is the good fruit that flows from their lives,

and we tend to see that good fruit

in the lives of their children

and in the lives of those who follow them.

———————————————————————————

The Person with Heavenly Wisdom Does Humble Deeds.

There are Actions that flow from Heavenly Wisdom.

There is DOING and not just TALKING.

There is HELPING of the poor and sick and elderly.

There are HIDDEN ACTS of KINDNESS.

What hidden act of SERVICE can you do this week?…

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So (Point #2) We Need Wisdom of Speech and Life!

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And then (Point #3)

God Offers Us Heavenly Wisdom (chapter 1, verse 5)

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. (NIV)

I remember repeating this verse day after day,

for more than 150 days,

as I memorized the book of James

with my high school Bible students

more than 30 years ago –

5 chapters, 128 verses.

—————-     —————————————————————-

You may think that you have very little wisdom,

      so why don’t you ask God for more?

It’s not likely that you’ll wake up one morning

and realize,

“Hey, I’m much wiser than I was yesterday.”

—————-     —————————————————————-

But if you really ask God for it,

I’m convinced you can look back a year from now,

two years from now,

and you’ll realize there’s a change going on,

a growth of character,

a depth of discernment

and self-control

that’s greater than it used to be.

—————-     —————————————————————-

John Piper is a well-known pastor

and a has been a regular speaker

at Passion Conferences.

He has suggested Five Ways to Get Wisdom,

and as we close this morning

I want to share three of those ways with you.

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1. Desire wisdom with all your might. 

Proverbs 4:8 – “Prize her highly and she will exalt you; she will honor you for your embrace.”

“Blessed is the graduate who walks through the commencement line more hungry for wisdom than when he entered school, for he shall be satisfied.”

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2. Apply yourself to study and meditate on the Word of God.

Psalm 19:7 – “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.”

“Not only faithful Bible study, but also regular reading of great books on theology and biblical interpretation, books that distill the wisdom of the greatest students of the word over the past 1900 years.” (15 minutes at bedtime)

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3. Come to Jesus.

Matthew 12:42 – “The queen of the south will arise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold something greater than Solomon is here.”

Others have pointed the way to life;

he is the way and the truth and the life. (John 14:6)

In him are

“hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

(Colossians 2:3)

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(PAUSE)

The book of James is very practical.

It reminds us that God stands ready

to help us with the control of our tongues.

———————————————————————————

There is a time to SPEAK UP / and a time to SHUT UP.

May God give us wisdom to know which is which.

      And the grace to keep in step

with His great purposes.

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And all God’s people said, “AMEN!”  (PRAYER)

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Ecclesiastes 5:2

This month, Brook Hill’s DOWNTOWN CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP celebrates THREE YEARS of ministry together! Join us for FRIEND DAY this Saturday (10:30am) at The Blue Side Tavern. (worship, fellowship & lunch – 6 South Bentz St.)